SUMMARY

The risks related to anesthesia have dramatically decreased over the past several decades. It is clear that death totally attributable to anesthesia is rare. Patient disease and the type and perhaps the location of surgical procedures have a greater effect on overall outcome. With these changes in risk, the anesthesiologist must now focus on nonmorbid outcomes, and there must be continued vigilance to maintain the high standards of hospital-based anesthesia in nonhospital settings.